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 Breastfeeding rates are known to differ among racial and ethnic
groups in the U.S. Now, the researchers report, their new study
suggests that Hispanic women are encouraged to breastfeed by
relatives, while black mothers are discouraged from breastfeeding by
hospitals that introduce formula to their babies.
Breastfeeding offers the best nutrition for infants. That's why the
American Academy of Pediatrics recommends nothing but breastfeeding
for the first 6 months of life, with continued breastfeeding, along
with the gradual introduction of food, at least until the child's
first birthday.
But even with these recommendations, about half of U.S. infants are
no longer breastfed by 6 months, and only a few receive the
recommended 12 months.
A 2012 study found that more than 80 percent of white and Hispanic
mothers start breastfeeding, and more than 50 percent are still
breastfeeding at 6 months. But only about two thirds of black
mothers start breastfeeding, and just over a third are still
breastfeeding at 6 months.
To learn more about those differences, Dr. Chelsea O. McKinney from
NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Illinois and her
team used information collected from 1,636 mothers in Maryland,
Illinois and the District of Columbia.
Compared with non-Hispanic white mothers, black mothers had higher
rates of poverty and were less likely to have a college degree or to
be married, and these three differences fully explained the lower
rates of intending or starting to breastfeed among black mothers.
Even when they started breastfeeding, black mothers weaned their
infants about 10 weeks earlier than white mothers, and the biggest
reason was that black mothers were more likely to start using infant
formula while in the hospital.
“I think eliminating infant formula use in hospitals, unless there
is a medical need, would make the most impact on breastfeeding
disparities that have plagued the U.S. for decades," McKinney said
in an email. “Limited formula feeding in the hospital would likely
improve breastfeeding outcomes for African Americans, as we found in
our study, but also for mothers of any race/ethnicity, as we’ve seen
from the success of many baby-friendly hospitals.”
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Hispanic mothers, whether they spoke Spanish or English, were more
likely than white mothers to start breastfeeding. The fact that
Hispanic mothers more often had female relatives who breastfed fully
explained this difference.
Hispanic mothers were also more likely than black mothers to start
breastfeeding and to breastfeed longer. Again, the higher rates of
breastfeeding among relatives of Hispanic mothers explained most of
these differences, the authors reported in Pediatrics.
“It was interesting to see family history of breastfeeding play such
a strong role for Hispanic mothers," McKinney said. “These findings
really illustrate how culture influences health and the
intergenerational transmission of health behaviors.”
She concluded that eliminating infant formula and asking about the
mother's family history of breastfeeding would help health care
providers to better support women who lack breastfeeding experience
and would go a long way toward eliminating these racial differences
and improving breastfeeding outcomes overall.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2a6zBuX Pediatrics, online July 12, 2016.
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